Consumers seen perking up this month on healthy jobs trends

A gauge of sentiment will likely show Friday morning that consumers perked up this month, thanks to healthy jobs trends and rising stock prices, according to economists’ forecasts.

Economists polled by MarketWatch expect a sentiment gauge from the University of Michigan and Thomson Reuters to rise to a preliminary reading of 82.8 in June from a final May level of 81.9. For context, the gauge averaged 86.9 over the year leading up to the start of the recession.

Last month consumers grew gloomier, with many worried about wages. Economists follow data on sentiment to get a feeling for the direction of consumer spending, which is the backbone of the U.S. economy.

The UMich sentiment report will be released at 9:55 a.m. Eastern.

Elsewhere Friday morning, economists expect a report on wholesalers to show that the producer price index rose 0.1% in May after posting 0.6% growth in April. Some producer-price increases may be passed along to consumers.

The U.S. Labor Department will release the PPI report at 8:30 a.m. Eastern.